Transcript

>> KURTIS: 20 miles east of
Madison, Wisconsin, light frost
covers a lonely stretch of
woods.

00:00:53

>> All right, this is what we've
got.

00:00:56

We've got an actual crime scene
out here, okay?

00:00:58

>> KURTIS: It provides a
chilling blanket for a body.

00:01:01

>> We've got a female, badly
beaten, and partially
decomposed.

00:01:06

>> KURTIS: A young woman, maybe
15 or 16.

00:01:12

Evidence technician Steve
Gilmore has documented death for
more than 25 years.

00:01:17

Even so, the scene at Goose Lake
leaves him cold.

00:01:22

>> It was indeed gruesome.

00:01:24

There had been a light dusting
of snow, but you could still
visibly see blunt-force trauma
to her face, chest, abdomen,
legs, virtually her entire body
in terms of discoloration of
contusions and abrasions.

Five days later, they're found
by some hunters, with their
fingertips cut off.

00:01:58

>> That spoke volumes to the
person who did this.

00:02:03

The person who did this is a
person who knows her, who is
known to know her, and who knows
about the criminal justice
system, who knows if we have her
fingerprints, we can identify
her.

00:02:17

>> KURTIS: From the autopsy
table, Jane Doe speaks to
detectives: "Find my real name,
and you will find my killer."
That task, however, would prove
to be daunting.

00:02:40

(modem connecting)
A morgue photo is downloaded
into a computer and enhanced.

00:02:50

The result is a photo of how
the young woman might have
looked in life.

00:02:55

This image is put on a poster
and distributed across the
country.

00:03:01

>> If you have any information
surrounding the murder, you are
asked to call detectives at...

00:03:07

>> KURTIS: The story gets local,
then national coverage.

00:03:10

Over 2,000 possible victims are
reviewed and rejected.

00:03:22

And the girl's identity remains
a mystery.

00:03:27

>> ♪ I once was lost
but now am found... ♪

00:03:38

>> On the morning of her
funeral, it was cold and rainy,
and the procession came into
the cemetery, and it stopped
raining.

00:03:49

>> ♪ ...was blind
but now I see... ♪

00:03:58

>> KURTIS: Forest Hill cemetery
in Madison, Wisconsin.

00:04:01

Police hold a simple ceremony,
the nameless young woman
interred, the hopes of ever
finding her killer flickering.

00:04:09

>> We are the family for this
young woman.

00:04:12

Two and a half months ago, she
entered our lives, and we don't
know a lot about her.

00:04:17

We know she's young.

00:04:19

We know that she was brutally
murdered.

00:04:21

>> It was kind of like, you
know, the final surrender, that
we're going to bury her and not
know who she is.

00:04:26

>> KURTIS: Jane Doe is laid to
rest under a headstone without
a name.

00:04:30

The case goes cold.

00:04:32

It does not stay that way for
long.

00:04:47

50 miles east of Madison sits
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a bigger
town with more and bigger
crimes.

00:04:54

Cold-case detectives here had
never worked the Madison crime.

00:04:58

One day, however, they take
a call.

00:05:02

Suddenly, the missing girl
becomes a Milwaukee problem.

00:05:06

>> I got a call from police
officer Dyer in Springfield,
Illinois, indicating that he
had information regarding a
homicide that had occurred in
the city of Milwaukee.

00:05:19

>> KURTIS: A woman has seen
posters of the girl, and pieces
it together with some family
gossip.

00:05:24

>> Met with the informant.

00:05:25

Showed her a picture of the
morgue photographs that we
obtained from Dane county.

00:05:29

And when she saw them, she
said that looked like the girl
she had seen with Joseph White.

00:05:35

>> KURTIS: Joseph White is a
pimp working out of Milwaukee.

00:05:39

In the previous year, he had
recruited a snow bunny-- a young
white woman-- to work for him.

00:05:46

Then, one day, according to
the informant, the young woman
simply vanished.

00:05:51

>> She told us a story
indicating that the girl had
been picked up out of Decatur,
out of a group home in Decatur,
where she had run away.

00:06:00

>> KURTIS: The trail is cold,
but worth following.

00:06:05

Murphy and Becker head for
the group home in Decatur.

00:06:09

There, they show the morgue
photo to the home's
administrator.

00:06:13

>> She was taken aback by it.

00:06:17

She said it looks like her,
but she didn't want to admit
it was her, because she didn't
want her to be dead.

00:06:23

We interviewed other workers
and Doris McLeod's roommates,
and they all identified the
photograph.

00:06:33

>> KURTIS: Doris Ann McLeod.

00:06:36

Finally, police have a name for
this face, and a story that's
all too typical.

00:06:41

As a child, Doris was sexually
abused.

00:06:45

Eventually, she found herself
in the first of 17 foster homes.

00:06:50

A month prior to her death,
Doris was on a greyhound bus,
running away from the last home
and into the waiting arms of
her first pimp.

00:07:02

On the street, Doris is
considered fresh meat.

00:07:08

In a matter of days, Joseph
White puts her out on a stroll.

00:07:11

From the beginning, there are
problems.

00:07:20

>> When he showed her to me,
I was like, "Oh."
She didn't look like the type
who could make no money at
nothing, you know?

00:07:27

She just didn't look like the
type, you know, who could make
money.

00:07:30

She just didn't look like the
type.

00:07:32

She didn't seem like a street
person, you know?

00:07:35

You know, like a ho.

00:07:36

She just didn't have that...

00:07:37

you know, she didn't have that.

00:07:39

I told him that too, you know?

00:07:40

"Oh, man, you're going to have
a hard time trying to get paid
with this one."
>> KURTIS: Carl Clark's
assessment of Doris McLeod
is chillingly correct.

00:07:51

On the street, prostitutes
obey the rules of the game,
rules set out by their pimps.

00:07:57

Police believe Doris McLeod
may have ignored these rules,
tried to walk away from Joseph
White, with fatal consequences.

00:08:05

>> I think she wanted out.

00:08:07

I think she had enough of the
prostitution.

00:08:10

She didn't like it.

00:08:11

She didn't want to do it.

00:08:12

She told her friends prior to
that that she didn't care to be
a prostitute.

00:08:15

I think she's decided to get out
of it, and he said, "You're
not."
>> And I think that's the
pivotal part in the whole case,
when she wanted to step away
from this activity, and he had
this grandiose plan that this
was going to be the way it was.

00:08:29

And that's what ultimately led
to the falling out and her
?w?wóç
>> KURTIS: 6:45 a.m.-- cold-case
detectives approach a rundown
two flat in Milwaukee's inner
cicity.

00:11:35

They're here to arrest Joseph
White for the murder of Doris
McLeod.

00:11:40

But as they approach the front
door, White heads out the back.

00:11:43

>> And as we got to the upper
level where they lived and into
the kitchen area, a uniformed
officer was bringing Joe White
back up these stairs.

00:11:53

He told us that he encountered
Joe White coming down the stairs
as we were going up the front,
and that Joe told him he was
going down to contact the
neighbor to borrow a cup of
sugar.

00:12:03

>> KURTIS: Borrowing sugar at
6:45 a.m. strikes police as odd.

00:12:07

Inside White's apartment, they
find more oddities, amounting
to a case for murder.

00:12:15

Scattered about the apartment
are fragments of Doris McLeod's
brief time in Milwaukee:
bus tickets for her and White,
clothes and bits of jewelry.

00:12:30

Taken together, they tie White
to his victim, but remain
largely circumstantial.

00:12:35

Then, detectives find a
smoking gun in the person of
a three-year-old boy.

00:12:42

>> Well, it was a warm day
in Milwaukee.

00:12:45

And because of that, we had
our sport coats off.

00:12:48

And naturally, children are
curious by the things that
police officers carry on their
belts.

00:12:54

>> And I felt, like, a tug on
my coat or my gun.

00:12:56

And it was this little boy.

00:12:58

It was Joseph.

00:13:00

>> Young Joseph, Joseph junior,
came up to me and was very
curious about the flashlight
on my belt, asked me what it
was, and wanted to see it.

00:13:10

>> Detective Becker pulled out
a picture of Doris McLeod and
asked if he knew who that was.

00:13:15

>> And Joe said, "that's Dee."
>> I says, "Do you know her?"
and he says, "Yes, that's Dee."
I then asked him if Dee had
ever been hurt while she was
in the house, and he said,
yeah, she had been hurt.

00:13:25

The monster had hurt her in
the basement of the house.

00:13:34

>> KURTIS: This tape was shot
by police four days after their
first interview with Joey.

00:13:38

In the basement, Joey first
shows police Dee's bedroom,
consisting of a mattress on
a cellar floor.

00:13:48

>> Back over here, and, in fact,
I'm not saying it's the same
mattress, but this little area
over here... and there was a
mattress.

00:13:56

You can see the plywood on the
wall.

00:13:58

He indicated that this was Dee's
room.

00:14:00

>> KURTIS: Adjoining the
makeshift bedroom is a laundry
room.

00:14:04

Here, Joey points to steam pipes
near the ceiling.

00:14:08

>> He said that he could see
Dee, and that Dee was hanging.

00:14:13

And we said, "what do you mean
hanging, Joe?

00:14:15

Where?"
And he said, "Up there."
So we could only assume that
she was somehow suspended, based
on what he was telling us.

00:14:21

>> And I asked how she had been
hurt.

00:14:23

And said, "Well, the monster bit
her fingers."
>> On her where?

00:14:26

>> Off her finger.

00:14:27

>> On her fingers?

00:14:28

>> On her finger?

00:14:29

>> Yeah.

00:14:30

>> Where on her fingers?

00:14:31

>> And I held out my hand at
that point in time, and I said,
"Can you show me which one,
Joe?"
And he said, "This one and this
one..."
>> "...and this one and this
one."
>> "Here and here and here and
here and here."
>> Can you show Kevin?

00:14:42

>> Can you show me where she was
hurt?

00:14:44

Anyplace there?

00:14:45

>> Over here, over here, over
here.

00:14:48

>> Which was particularly
unnerving to us, because the
information about the fingertips
being removed had never been
released to the public.

00:14:55

So he had some knowledge there
that only someone that really
knew what was going on would be
aware of.

00:15:01

>> I hear monster.

00:15:03

>> You heard the monster?

00:15:04

>> Yeah.

00:15:05

>> What was the monster saying?

00:15:07

>> He said (unintelligible).

00:15:09

>> Get out of here?

00:15:12

>> Yep.

00:15:13

>> The monster told you to get
out of here?

00:15:15

>> Yep.

00:15:16

>> An understatement, a classic
understatement, would be to say
that the hair stood up on the
back of your neck.

00:15:21

To think that a child of that
age could have seen anything
this horrific was a very telling
moment in this whole case and
an overwhelming moment for the
four detectives assembled there.

00:15:31

>> KURTIS: Based on Joey's
account, cold-case detectives
believe this might be where
Doris McLeod was tortured and
perhaps killed.

00:15:43

Upstairs, they find more
evidence of exactly how she was
killed.

00:15:50

>> Detective Murphy was
concentrating his efforts on
searching this area, and
secreted behind a panel in this
unit he found the gang pad.

00:16:00

>> KURTIS: This is the gang pad
Murphy found hidden in White's
house.

00:16:05

It provides a blueprint for
the inner workings of the
Gangster Disciple Nation,
one of the largest and most
violent gangs in the country.

00:16:13

In the context of a murder
investigation, however, the
gang pad provides much more.

00:16:19

>> It talked about what happens
to you when you violate the
rules of the gang.

00:16:25

And it said right on there
"50 to the chest."
>> KURTIS: "50 to the chest,"
the punishment specified for
a girl who refuses to work the
streets, and a chilling echo of
Doris McLeod's autopsy report.

00:16:38

Repeated blows struck to the
head and chest prior to her
death.

00:16:45

>> They called me and said,
"Bob, you won't believe what
we found.

00:16:48

Remember her chest?"
Oh, the 50 to the chest was
something we knew about from
other gang investigations,
but to have it written that
this is a penalty for
noncompliance with the rules,
with prostitution, with how much
money you're supposed to make,
this was... and then to have
it in his handwriting, that
came all because of her body.

00:17:36

know
..

00:17:37

But they also need vitamin d to help absorb
calcium.

00:17:42

With yoplait kids, trix yogurt and go-gurt,
they get both.

00:17:47

Yoplait, the one for kids.

00:17:52

Go-Gurt is specially made
to freeze and thaw by lunch time?

00:17:55

So kids can have their favorite yogurt in
their lunch box
Go-Gurt.

00:18:00

Freeze it.

00:18:01

Thaw it.

00:18:02

Eat it up.

00:19:37

>> KURTIS: On June 20, 1991,
police question Joseph White
in the Madison County lockup.

00:19:43

They bring the gang pad with
them and lay it face down on
the table.

00:19:48

White asks for a cigarette,
then demands to see the pad.

00:19:53

>> He started to page through
the pages one by one.

00:19:58

And you could just almost see
the blood draining from his face
as he did this, because he's now
realizing that we have something
that's very damaging to him.

00:20:05

And he closed the remaining
pages that he had opened, shoved
it across the table, and said,
"That's bull (bleep)."
We shoved it back across
the table at him and said,
"No, Joe, that's evidence."
And he individually looked at
each of the three of us and
said, "I want an attorney."
>> KURTIS: The first day of
Joseph White's murder trial,
the defendant arrives in court
wearing long black Muslim robes.

00:20:38

His son waves to his dad.

00:20:40

He will help police build their
case.

00:20:43

White then insists on defending
himself.

00:20:49

>> The evidence will show that
I didn't kill Doris Ann McLeod.

00:20:54

I had nothing to do with her
death.

00:20:57

>> I think he represented
himself, first of all, because
he thinks he's smarter than us,
and he still thinks he can beat
us at our own game.

00:21:03

That's how smart he thinks he
is.

00:21:05

>> The prosecution may want you
to believe that I killed her.

00:21:08

And, in fact, if that is
believed, then an innocent man
will be sent to prison.

00:21:14

>> Basically, I would compare it
to trying to teach a six-year-
old to drive your car at 100
miles an hour and tell him,
you know, "Take a left at the
corner."
>> KURTIS: Mark Frank is
appointed White's standby
counsel, and in this case,
that is exactly what he is
forced to do.

00:21:32

>> Any attorney will tell you
it's never wise to represent
yourself.

00:21:36

First of all, if you're the
person charged with an offense,
you're way too emotionally
involved to be able to step back
and make objective decisions.

00:21:44

And secondly, unless you've been
to law school and tried 30 or
40 trials, you probably wouldn't
want to be representing yourself
in a murder case.

00:21:53

>> It appears as if there's been
very little preparation in terms
of trying to prepare questions
for the individual witnesses.

00:22:01

I'm getting concerned that
the jury might be getting very
uncomfortable with the way
the evidence is coming in.

00:22:08

>> KURTIS: For Joseph White,
the trial is a high-stakes
roll of the dice, his freedom
hanging in the balance.

00:22:16

After six days of evidence,
the jury returns in less than
four hours.

00:22:21

White is found guilty of murder
in the first degree and first-
degree sexual assault.

00:22:26

He will be eligible for parole
in the year 2074, on Doris
McLeod's 100th birthday.

00:22:45

Back in Dane County, Doris's
gravestone now bears her name.

00:22:54

Detective Hughes visits often.

00:22:59

>> Doris didn't have anyone that
was really advocating for her.

00:23:02

And we took her on as...

00:23:06

I don't know.

00:23:07

Some people say we, like,
adopted her.

00:23:11

But, you know, I think those of
us that worked on the case and
became involved with it felt
that somebody needed to be
there, at least for her spirit.

00:23:20

And that's why I think there's
such an attachment, and that's
why it continues.

00:23:26

>> KURTIS: Those who never knew
Doris McLeod now tend to her
memory.

00:23:32

And death provides a young woman
with the acceptance and caring
her short and troubled life
w1ó
>> I noticed what appeared to
be stains of blood leading down
A trail of blood doesn't mean
anything unless there's a body
at the end of the trail.

00:27:09

>> There was a bloodbath in
there.

00:27:15

the hallways, there's blood
in the cellar.

00:27:18

>> I don't know what happened.

00:27:31

>> KURTIS: South Portland,
Maine-- a study in small-town
America, where life is tidy,
and life's secrets are kept
tight behind closed doors.

00:27:56

A Wednesday afternoon in South
Portland.

00:27:59

Police dig out the crawl space
of a cellar.

00:28:01

They are looking for a body.

00:28:03

It is the endgame to a cold case
that begins with a phone call.

00:28:07

(phone ringing)
>> South Portland police.

00:28:13

how can I help you?

00:28:14

>> KURTIS: On August 13, 1991,
Elaine Woodward calls police.

00:28:17

She is worried about her mother,
48-year-old Pearl Bruns.

00:28:22

>> I'm thinking to myself,
"Okay, if I report her missing
and she shows up, I look like
an idiot.

00:28:27

If I don't report her missing
and something's really happened,
you know..."
>> KURTIS: In South Portland,
Pearl is known as a creature of
habit.

00:28:36

She likes a drink at the VFW,
coffee at the local Quick Mart,
and her daily fix from the
lottery.

00:28:43

On August 11, that routine is
broken.

00:28:48

Pearl Bruns vanishes.

00:28:51

South Portland detective Linda
Barker agrees to meet Elaine at
her mom's home.

00:28:59

>> So I made some observations
while walking through the house,
and went into the bedroom, and
that's where things looked a
little amiss.

00:29:11

There was a suitcase that was
laying on the floor that was
very disheveled.

00:29:19

>> She found the blood on the
suitcase.

00:29:21

She found some blood on the
bureau, in the sink.

00:29:23

She asked me if there was
anyplace, you know, else that
we had not looked.

00:29:29

>> KURTIS: Elaine walks
Detective Barker outside to a
bulkhead and a set of stairs
that lead to a cellar.

00:29:36

>> I opened up the bulkhead.

00:29:38

And when I did that, I noticed
what appeared to be stains of
blood leading down the stairs
into the bottom of the cellar.

00:29:47

>> KURTIS: In the cellar, Barker
finds a cement floor and an
opening that plays into a dirt
crawl space.

00:29:57

Some of the soil looks like it's
been disturbed.

00:30:01

Barker calls for backup and some
shovels.

00:30:07

>> We asked Elaine for a couple
of shovels.

00:30:10

We found some in the garage.

00:30:11

And a number of us were digging
in the basement, thinking,
"Well, if something's happened,
perhaps she's in here."
>> KURTIS: The dig turns up
nothing.

00:30:23

South Portland's police chief
declines to call in homicide
investigators from the state,
opting to treat Pearl Bruns
as simply a missing person; yet
another wife gone on a permanent
holiday.

00:30:40

>> They believed it was just a
case of, you know, a woman who
drank too much, and, you know,
just went off on her own with
another man or what have you.

00:30:51

That's what they were thinking,
and that's what they had pretty
much said to me.

00:30:54

They said, "With a trail of
blood, a trail of blood doesn't
mean anything unless there's a
body at the end of the trail."
>> KURTIS: Days become weeks,
and still Pearl Bruns has not
turned up.

>> She told me point blank
that she would have been going
a little bit more headstrong,
but her hands were being tied.

00:31:31

And I think she was just as
frustrated about the situation
as I was.

00:31:36

>> KURTIS: Elaine Woodward
believes her mother is not just
missing, but dead.

00:31:41

On August 28, Elaine decides
to make a second phone call,
this time to the media.

00:31:49

(phone ringing)
>> Good afternoon, Channel 8
News.

00:31:55

>> When I went out and talked
to Elaine, she started telling
me a lot of the information that
the South Portland police hadn't
told us, like that there was
blood on the suitcase that her
mother had left behind, and that
there was blood on the bulkhead,
in the cellar.

00:32:11

And it all sounded very fishy.

00:32:13

>> Both the police and Pearl's
family say that Pearl and her
husband had an argument here
at the house just before she
disappeared.

00:32:20

>> KURTIS: In 1991, Christine
Young is a beat reporter.

00:32:23

She quickly strikes up a rapport
with Elaine, and decides to step
beyond her role as a journalist.

00:32:29

>> So I called someone I knew in
the attorney general's office,
an assistant attorney general.

00:32:34

And when I told him the
situation, he uttered a
profanity.

00:32:39

And the next thing I knew,
the state police crime lab
was in the Bruns's driveway.

00:32:44

>> KURTIS: Young's call to the
attorney general jump-starts
the Bruns case.

00:32:49

This time, the state police
would be at the forefront.

00:32:52

And this time, murder would be
cqccqqccqccecqqqqqqqqqcqec;qic;
>> KURTIS: There's a rule of
thumb among homicide detectives:
when you start to look for
suspects, start with the family.

00:35:51

In the case of Pearl Bruns,
there appears to be reason
behind the rule.

00:35:56

>> I had heard rumors, you know,
but she never came right out
and about and said it to me.

00:36:03

But I had heard rumors where,
you know, she'd tell other
people, "If anything ever
happened to me," you know,
Bill had done it, that sort
of thing.

>> After I talked to him the
first time, I kind of looked
at him and I knew there wasn't
something right with him,
the way that he was talking.

00:36:25

>> Bill was continuing to be
matter-of-fact about the entire
situation.

00:36:28

We had indicated to him that
we felt that Pearl didn't just
walk away, that we had some
concerns, Bill, that maybe
things had got out of hand there
at the home, and possibly
something had happened to Pearl.

00:36:41

Bill's indication over and over
and over again is that "I would
not hurt my Pearlie."
>> KURTIS: Bill Bruns works
the docks of Portland, hauling
fish for money.

00:36:52

The marriage, his fourth and
Pearl's sixth, is not without
its rough spots.

00:36:58

>> They'd get in fights, you
know.

00:37:02

He might throw things, rip
a phone out of the wall, that
sort of thing.

00:37:05

But I never thought it would
escalate to this.

00:37:07

>> And he kept talking-- "I
would never hurt my Pearlie,"
and that "I loved her so much."
And finally I said, "Well, why
do you keep talking in the past
tense?

00:37:16

Is she dead?"
>> KURTIS: Cold-case detectives
reopen the investigation with
a second trip to the Bruns home.

00:37:23

Even months removed from murder,
trace amounts of blood are
picked up throughout the house.

00:37:30

Detectives decide to call in
the dogs.

00:37:34

>> Let's find Fred.

00:37:36

Come on, find him.

00:37:37

Where is he?

00:37:39

>> KURTIS: Rafe is an eight-
year-old German shepherd
specially trained in scenting
for cadaver remains.

00:37:44

>> Where is he?

00:37:45

Good dog.

00:37:48

What a good dog.

00:37:49

>> KURTIS: Detectives set him
loose in Bill Bruns's basement.

00:37:53

Almost immediately, the dog
begins to cast his head about
the basement, a sign he's onto
a scent.

00:37:59

Then he alerts.

00:38:03

>> He did his alert, which is,
as you notice, is to lie down.

00:38:08

At that point, I said, "Well, I
can't say whether or not she's
buried here, but I can say that
there is human decomposition
scent in this soil."
>> KURTIS: Again, police dig
in the Bruns cellar.

00:38:24

Again, they find nothing.

00:38:28

Meanwhile, a feeling begins
to grow among investigators.

00:38:33

Maybe Bill Bruns had hidden
Pearl's body in the cellar,
and then maybe he had moved it.

00:38:53

Some 100 miles from Portland,
the Bruns case takes a twist.

00:38:57

Pearl Bruns's purse is found
on a hiking trail in rural
New Hampshire.

00:39:02

>> Since they found her
pocketbook, it just proves
what I've thought all along,
that she is dead.

00:39:09

>> KURTIS: The area is close
by Bill Bruns's trucking runs,
raising at least two
possibilities: Bruns has left
the purse as a red herring for
police, or he has dumped not
only the purse, but his wife's
body as well.

00:39:25

The New Hampshire woods is
swept for Pearl Bruns's body,
sapping resources and energy
from the investigation.

00:39:33

>> We're looking in New
Hampshire, and we're looking all
over the place, and I'm saying,
"You know, we're never going to
find this body, because we're
going in three or four different
directions at the same time
here."
>> Now is a really discouraging
point, where we thought, "Gosh,
there's just too many paths to
follow, you know?

00:39:51

This case may never get solved."
>> KURTIS: Ultimately, the
search proves fruitless.

00:39:58

Almost inevitably, the trail
leads back to the Bruns cellar,
where science would turn the
case on its ear.

00:40:15

Cold-case detectives descend
on the Bruns house, armed with a
search warrant and a substance
known as luminol.

00:40:24

Clear and odorless, luminol is
a chemical reagent with a nose
for blood.

00:40:31

Months, even years later,
luminol can detect microscopic
amounts of blood lodged in a
crime scene rug or baked into
a panel of wood.

00:40:44

detectives with a glowing map
for murder.

00:40:55

>> Upstairs with the tremendous
amount of luminol reaction
indicated to us that probably
this was where the assault had
taken place.

00:41:04

>> There was so much of it.

00:41:05

The rug looked like it had been
saturated.

00:41:08

You could see the footprints
in the rugs.

00:41:10

You could see the footprints
on the linoleum floor.

00:41:13

And we could actually follow
the blood trail out of the
residence.

00:41:22

>> The blood on the stairs
leading into the basement seemed
to be an avenue of
transportation of the body.

00:41:27

Blood in the cellar might have
been where the body was laying
while a hole was dug for the
burial.

00:41:37

>> And you could actually
see where the body was lying
while he was either tired or
he had to move the body up
into the dirt portion.

00:41:45

>> KURTIS: This is the final
luminol image Lehan refers to--
what appears to be a body
outlined in blood on the dirt
floor of the basement.

00:41:56

Coupled with the footsteps
and the smears of blood
upstairs, Lehan and Harriman now
have no doubts the Bruns home
had been visited by a violent
crime.

00:42:09

That night, they sit down with
Bill Bruns for a heart-to-heart
about luminol and murder.

00:42:15

>> You, when you walk into the
residence, don't recall seeing
anything at all as far as blood?

00:42:20

>> No.

00:42:22

>> Not even on the suitcase?

00:42:23

>> No.

00:42:24

No.

00:42:25

>> Listen to me.

00:42:26

I've just been inside the house,
and this is total bull
(bleep), all right, at this
point in time, okay?

00:42:31

There was blood there.

00:42:32

The blood was visible
everywhere.

00:42:35

And the blood is all over that
friggin' house, all right?

00:42:37

And to say that nothing was
seen...

00:42:40

>> Well, I didn't see anything.

00:42:41

>> I don't believe you for
a minute anymore, all right?

00:42:43

>> KURTIS: When we return,
the psychology of a police
interrogation, and a final
trip to Bill Bruns's cellar.

00:44:27

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..

00:44:28

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00:44:50

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00:44:52

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00:44:53

Eat it up.

00:45:05

>> For the purpose of the tape,
it's about 6:13 p.m.

00:45:10

>> KURTIS: In a police
interrogation room, Bill Bruns
sits quietly.

00:45:14

>> Do you have any problems with
me asking you questions?

00:45:18

Do you have any problems
answering those questions?

00:45:22

>> I'll try to answer them.

00:45:24

>> Oh, no.

00:45:25

I understand you'll try.

00:45:25

In other words, you're saying
yes, you'll answer any
questions?

00:45:28

>> That I can.

00:45:29

>> KURTIS: detectives Mike
Harriman and Pat Lehan have just
treated the Bruns house with
luminol.

00:45:33

Now, they're ready to question
Bill Bruns about the results.

00:45:36

The approach is carefully
orchestrated.

00:45:39

>> I said, "What happened when
you came home that night?"
He said, "Well, first of all, I
went out to dinner.

00:45:45

Pearl didn't want to go."
>> Usually we get Chinese food,
you know?

00:45:50

>> Did you go anyplace else?

00:45:51

>> Before I came home I went to
Dunkin Donuts on St. Johns
Street.

00:45:55

>> "Then I came back home.

00:45:56

The lights were on.

00:45:57

No Pearl."
>> I holler her name, call out.

00:46:00

"Pearl?"
No answer.

00:46:05

>> I was a good guy and I let
him think that I was on his side
and that everything was an
accident.

00:46:11

>> What was going through your
head?

00:46:13

What were you thinking?

00:46:14

>> I didn't know what to think
at first.

00:46:17

I thought she might have...

00:46:18

probably she might have gone
over to the VFW again.

00:46:22

>> And then I had Mike Harriman
come in and he was going to be
the bad guy.

00:46:26

>> You've been sitting here
lying to me.

00:46:28

>> No.

00:46:29

>> Bill, I don't believe you for
a minute anymore.

00:46:32

Not after I see what happened in
there.

00:46:34

Now, Bill, I'm not saying that
you killed Pearl on purpose, all
right?

00:46:37

>> I didn't kill anybody.

00:46:38

>> You listen to me.

00:46:39

>> KURTIS: For more than an
hour, Harriman goes after Bruns
hard.

00:46:43

>> Well, I'll tell you, Bill,
we're not going away.

00:46:45

That's for darn sure.

00:46:46

We know she died here, and we're
But Bill...

00:46:50

>> KURTIS: He uses body
language, alters his tone and
approach to the suspect, all the
while hammering away at the
damaging luminol evidence found
in the house.

00:46:58

>> All right?

00:46:59

There's blood in the living
room.

00:47:01

There's blood in the bedroom.

00:47:02

There's blood in the hallways.

00:47:03

There's blood in the cellar.

00:47:04

We're not done.

00:47:05

We're just starting, Bill.

00:47:06

>> I know.

00:47:07

>> All right?

00:47:08

>> I understand.

00:47:09

>> And we're accumulating
evidence here.

00:47:11

There's no question.

00:47:12

There was a bloodbath in there.

00:47:13

I know you're involved, all
right?

00:47:15

I know you're involved, you know
you're involved.

00:47:17

I'm here to help you.

00:47:18

The only way I can help you is
if you start being truthful with
me.

00:47:21

I cannot help you if you're not
being truthful with me.

00:47:23

>> On one of the interviews, in
fact, it's a technique that I
used, I said, "Look, this
happens all the time.

00:47:28

Husbands and wives..." and I
would tell him a story, you
know?

00:47:32

"I've been mad at my wife, and
these things happen.

00:47:35

But, you know, you're not a
murderer.

00:47:37

You're not a bad person."
>> I'll have to admit to you, my
wife's not an alcoholic.

00:47:41

Yeah, but my wife runs up some
bills once in a while.

00:47:43

And that pisses me off, all
right?

00:47:45

>> KURTIS: On this night,
Harriman borrows his partner's
approach, and then some.

00:47:49

>> We understand, Bill.

00:47:50

We deal with cases every single
day where people lose their
tempers and husbands and wives
don't agree, all right?

00:47:57

>> Yeah.

00:47:59

>> And this is what happened in
this case.

00:48:01

Pearl was a problem.

00:48:02

There's no question she was a
problem.

00:48:04

We've researched that.

00:48:05

We know that.

00:48:06

We know she spent a lot of
money.

00:48:07

We know she was out drinking and
gambling.

00:48:11

And for who else knows, she
might have been out seeing some
other man, okay?

00:48:13

You might know that better than
I do.

00:48:15

That would have pissed me off,
all right?

00:48:17

It would have made me very ugly.

00:48:18

>> Yeah.

00:48:19

>> All right?

00:48:19

>> Maybe that's what happened to
Pearl.

00:48:21

I don't know that, Bill.

00:48:22

Only you know that, because
you're the only one that was
here when it happened.

00:48:25

>> No.

00:48:26

>> You... don't tell me no.

00:48:27

I don't want to hear that
anymore.

00:48:29

>> All right.

00:48:30

>> Eventually, I had to hit him
point blank with, "You must have
killed your wife, here, because
there's no other thing that it
could be."
>> You killed Pearl, or you had
involvement in her killing,
plain and simple.

00:48:42

>> And he would get tears in his
eyes, and say, "I would never
hurt my Pearlie."
>> I'm telling you you're full
of (bleep).

00:48:49

When you look at that rug...

00:48:50

when you came back into that
house, you mean to tell me you
didn't see any blood in there at
all?

00:48:54

>> No, I didn't.

00:48:55

>> The only way that you didn't
see it is if you had blinders
on, I'll tell you right now.

00:48:58

>> It's impossible.

00:48:59

It's impossible.

00:49:00

>> I did not see any blood.

00:49:01

>> KURTIS: As the two detectives
turn full-bore on their suspect,
Bill Bruns refuses to deviate
en an inch from his story.

00:49:08

>> I don't know what happened.

00:49:11

>> That's not possible.

00:49:13

>> I can't say it any different.

00:49:15

>> KURTIS: The failure to gain a
confession places the case in
limbo.

00:49:19

Despite the powerful luminol
evidence, prosecutors still feel
they need a body to support a
murder charge.

00:49:26

Pat Lehan believes that body is
in Bill Bruns's cellar.

00:49:30

Unfortunately, he's running out
of legal grounds to continue his
search.

00:49:36

>> I was very dubious about the
propriety of still another
search warrant.

00:49:46

We'd had a couple of searches
there, a couple search warrants
had been done.

00:49:49

There'd been a consent search
done.

00:49:51

And there are only so many times
that you can justify intruding
upon somebody's property.

00:49:56

>> I wanted to take a bulldozer
in there and remove the house,
and that's how desperate I was
getting towards the end.

00:50:01

We knew that body had to be in
the cellar, because we've
checked every other avenue.

00:50:05

And short of taking that house
off its foundation and digging
in every little spot there, we
needed something.

00:50:13

And as a result, the radar came
along, which was in the nick of
time.

00:52:24

>> This is Harding Lawson's
ground-penetrating radar unit.

00:52:27

It's a unit produced by
geophysical survey systems in
North Salem, New Hampshire.

00:52:33

>> KURTIS: Ground penetrating
radar-- the final tool available
to cold case detectives.

00:52:38

If it fails to turn up Pearl
Bruns's body, the game of cat
and mouse will be over.

00:52:43

Bill Bruns will be declared the
winner.

00:52:51

Using radar waves, Scott Calkin
can see into the dirt floor
about three feet.

00:52:56

Almost immediately, he registers
some odd findings.

00:53:01

>> It was apparent throughout
all of the day that the entire
data set was that there was a
very hard reflector present at
about 2.5 to three feet below
ground surface.

00:53:14

However, in one corner of the
basement, that reflector was
conspicuously absent.

00:53:20

>> KURTIS: In layman's terms, a
reflector is a hard layer of
clay running below the dirt
surface of the basement.

00:53:26

The absence of a reflector could
mean one of two things-- either
the soil has been disturbed, or
something buried there is
absorbing the radar energy.

00:53:37

As Calkin maps the anomaly, the
focus of investigators begins to
sharpen.

00:53:42

>> I distinctly remember going
to the area that I wanted the
police to test pit and literally
just stood over that area, and
put my hands out, and said,
"Right here."
>> He told us exactly where to
dig, and to what depth.

00:54:01

We did so.

00:54:04

And it was upon the second or
third shovel full of dirt that
we struck the plastic bag
containing the head of the
victim.

00:54:14

>> KURTIS: Wrapped in plastic
and bound in rope, Pearl Bruns'
body is found right where Linda
Barker suspected it might be all
along-- in the Bruns cellar,
less than three feet from the
surface.

00:54:28

>> It's just amazing to me the
number of times, first, as
investigators, we were in the
basement and didn't find her,
but especially that first day,
when I was so suspicious that
maybe there was foul play, and
we were digging, and we were
that close, that we didn't find
her.

00:54:46

>> Shortly after 6:00 tonight,
investigators wheeled out a body
they believe is Pearl Bruns.

00:54:52

>> KURTIS: As they dig his wife
out of the cellar, Bill Bruns
sits in his kitchen eating
dinner.

00:54:58

Pat Lehan walks upstairs to make
the arrest.

00:55:02

>> I went into the house and I
could still smell the odor
coming up through the... from
the cellar, through the boards.

00:55:07

And I looked at Bill, and I
said, "Bill, you'll never guess
what we found downstairs."
He goes, "I don't know, what?"
and I said, "We found Pearl.

00:55:15

she's downstairs.

00:55:17

Can you believe that?"
And he looks at me, and he goes,
"You've got to be kidding me."
I said, "No, I'm not.

00:55:23

She's down there."
And he says, "Well, how did she
get there?"
I said, "I haven't got the
foggiest.

00:55:28

But you know something?

00:55:29

You're under arrest."
And he said, "Well, what's the
charge?"
And I said, "Murder."
And he looks at me, and he goes,
"That's a strong word."
And I said, "Bill, that's a
strong odor coming up.

00:55:38

How can you eat?"
So he stood there, he looked at
me, and says, "Well, let me
finish my spaghetti before I
have to go."
So he sat back down and he
started eating again.

00:55:48

And I said, "Geez, I can't
believe this guy's doing this."
So we just grabbed him and took
him out the door.

00:55:53

>> KURTIS: Two years later, Bill
Bruns pleads guilty to
manslaughter.

00:55:58

The autopsy on Pearl Bruns
reveals a fracture of the left
orbital bone, an injury that,
had it been treated, probably
would not have proven fatal.

00:56:10

The most likely scenario-- Pearl
Bruns was hit and knocked
unconscious, and then left on
the floor of her home to bleed
to death.

00:56:21

>> Hopefully, you know, he may
have hit her and walked away,
and not realized to what extent
he had hurt her.

00:56:28

My dread is that, you know, he
hit her, she fell, and, you
know, she was pleading in a pool
of blood, and he was looking at
her, and he didn't help her.

00:56:39

I'm not quite sure what
transpired.

00:56:41

I'll never know.

00:56:42

>> KURTIS: In a final touch of
irony, the autopsy provides one
additional detail.

00:56:49

Pearl was in the advanced stages
of cancer and probably would not
have survived six months.